Todt, and the governing body's medical commission chief Gerard Saillant, vowed to sue the wheelchair-bound former F1 driver after he criticised their handling of the investigation into Bianchi's horror Suzuka crash.

"I let myself get carried away in front of the camera," Streiff, who was paralysed in a 1989 pre-season crash, said in a statement issued through the FIA.

The 59-year-old Frenchman, who has also stirred controversy with his comments about Michael Schumacher's health condition, acknowledged that what he said about Todt, Saillant and the FIA was "insulting and defamatory".

"I ask Jean Todt and Gerard Saillant, who are well aware of my health problems, to excuse me," he added. "I regret having said things about them that are totally out of line with the consideration they both deserve."